Doug Franz College Football Playoff – Week 6

In case you don’t know from the things I’ve said on air, I want a playoff in college football. I don’t have a problem with the BCS formula; I just don’t want it used to narrow the field from 120 to 2.

I have yet to hear any “pro current system” argument that I can’t destroy on logical grounds. Of course there’s one argument I can’t beat and that is anyone saying they like the current system and they don’t want it changed. Other than that, I’m still waiting for someone to convince me to give up my dream for a college football playoff.

Every week I’ll be putting before you the Doug Franz College Football Playoff. Every week the BCS rankings will change, therefore changing the teams making the playoff. If you want an explanation for the way my formula works, check the bottom of the blog.
Here’s the playoff pairings if the regular season ended today.

OBSERVATIONS:
Ga Tech went from a #10 seed travelling to the site of the #7 to a #7 hosting Ohio St.

Iowa lost home field in the first two rounds with their loss to OSU. They barely made the poll last week and now they moved up in seed to a winnable game in Boise. If they pull the upset, they’d have to deal with going to Texas.

Penn State was knocked out of the DFCFP 2 weeks ago but slipped back in last week.

The SEC and Big 10 are the only conferences with 3 teams.
How upset would Texas be to earn a 3 seed and see Va Tech on the other side of the field?

The next rounds would be even more amazing. Ga Tech would have to travel to Alabama and Bama would move on to play Texas in the Sugar Bowl.

CONFERENCE BREAKDOWN:

By ranking every team, you get a true representation of the best conference by simply taking the average BCS rank of every team in the conference. This playoff system makes every game vital because it rewards teams and conferences alike.

Here’s the ranking of the conferences after week 6 of the BCS and the average BCS rank of the teams in the conference.

On the surface it looks like a mistake that 50th ranked Nevada is in the poll. It’s not a mistake but it will change. The WAC is the 8th ranked conference based on BCS average. Right now, Nevada is 7-0 in conference while Boise State is 6-0. This is of vital importance to whoever occupies the 16th spot in the BCS. As soon as Nevada loses in WAC play, they’re out of the playoff and Boise is in as an automatic qualifier, opening a spot for a wild card. In this case it would be Oregon St. but we know that will change after the Civil War. Imagine the SEC’s great fear of their one seed losing to a Pac-10 team in the first round.

I’m shocked at how close the Pac-10 is to claiming the top spot as the toughest conference in college football.

HOUSTON V EAST CAROLINA V OREGON ST V NEVADA

The magic of the DFCFP is how it highlights the regular season more than any other system. Did you think the Wash St/SMU game was a big deal? In the DFCFP, one overtime game affects millions of dollars. SMU lost to Wash St in OT.

If SMU wins, their 69th position would move up dramatically in the BCS rankings because losing to the 102nd ranked team in the BCS is a killer for C-USA. If that game becomes a win, C-USA is now ahead of the WAC. That would put East Carolina in the DFCFP (really the winner of the C-USA Championship game but ECU has the best record in the conference over Houston). C-USA would make millions by getting in the DFCFP while whoever is 16th in the BCS just got bumped—either Oregon St., Nevada or Miami . The DFCFP makes every single game, every single weekend, vital to every conference.

Here’s the process for coming up with the teams.

1) Rank all D-1 (FBS) teams 1-120 (from Florida-Western Kentucky)

2) Rank all the conferences 1-11 based on the average BCS rank of the teams in the conference.

3) Reward the first place team in the top 8 conferences with an automatic bid.

4) Independents—this means you Notre Dame—get no special treatment. If you’re not in a conference, earn a wild card bid or join a conference.

6) Rank the 16 teams based on BCS rank with no regard to status as an automatic qualifier or wild-card entry.

7) First two rounds are at the home of the better seed.

8) Final Four and Championship game are played at a rotation among Fiesta, Cotton, Sugar, Rose.

I’m aware that there are three games at neutral sites with four bowl game hosts. This is leverage in case the Rose wants to stick to tradition. If the Rose does want to stay involved, there would be a new bowl game created for the two teams that just missed out on the playoff. This week would be Oregon St v Miami.